The Call (Part Three)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:
‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

So does God promise us everything He promised to Abraham? Well, in one sense, of course, these promises are Abraham-specific. God does not call every single individual Christian to be the father of many nations, the father of all the faithful, the progenitor of the race that produces the Messiah. But in another sense, there are some general observations that are applicable to us.

For one thing, as has been pointed out, those who follow Christ, to the extent they follow Christ, have a tremendous impact for good, for blessing, not only on their own direct descendents but on the countless others their lives and the lives of their descendents touch. In this way, by either following Christ or not, we choose to be either more or less a blessing or a curse to our family and the “families of the earth.”

This is easily seen, but it goes down hard for the atomistic, individualistic, taking-care-of-me-and-nobody-else culture and society we have inherited in the West over the past century or so. Abraham’s example shows what one man’s faith combined with the blessing of God can do to affect not only the course of history but the salvation and redemption and restoration of the whole world. We are called to be faithful, and the measure of our faithfulness, by God’s grace, shows up down the line.

Another general principle we see in Abraham’s call is the fact that, while God pours out blessings on His followers in abundance, there are always going to be those who pour on the curses as well (fortunately without the same effectiveness!). Jesus told His disciples that if the world hated Him (and it did for the most part), then the world was certain to hate those who walked closely in His steps. This “enmity” all comes by degrees, but no matter the opposition, no matter the persecution, no matter the sin-full treatment received by the followers of the call of God, you can count on God to take care of it—somehow, some way. Those who pray for the blessing of God’s children will be blessed themselves, God guarantees. Those who call on God to curse them will not only have their prayers turned aside but they will receive back on themselves the very curses they send out. Like the apostle Paul said, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

God is going to take care of His own. Our part is to trust the One we follow, obey the One we trust. If all the world stands against us, seeks on the one hand to lead us down paths of unrighteousness and then just as passionately seeks on the other to make us pay in spades for walking down any other, God will stand by us and help us to stand in the face of temptation and trouble from any quarter. He who calls is faithful and will do it.

“God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we call upon the God of our fathers, asking that You make us faithful fathers in our turn. Help us to be faithful to You, to this generation, and to the ones following by following ourselves Your call and in Your steps. Protect us from our enemies, dear God: keep us from falling into temptation on the right hand or the left, keep us from following the world itself as well as from fainting under its rejection of us when we don’t. Thank You, heavenly Father, for the greatest blessing of all, salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray for His kingdom to come in might, blessing all the nations of the earth to the great glory of the Trinity, in Christ’s name. Amen.”

The Call (Part Two)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:

‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

The call of God comes to a person where he is. Abraham did not go out to meet God and introduce himself, looking for a job or a place in His graces. God went looking for Abraham, and He found him sipping tea alongside a bunch of idol-worshipers at Ur of the Chaldees. And we like this part of the call, because we want to be taken as we are, where we are, with the clothes we have on, “just as I am,” nothing I have to do to receive the grace of God—except receive it, that is.

The catch is, the call doesn’t leave us there. That is exactly what the call is all about—it is a call to leave, to go out, to change, to do something, and to do something different from what we have been doing. Abraham had to leave the tea sitting on the table and follow God into the unknown, “a land that I will show you,” a land he had never seen before. Yes, God came to him first, and God is going to take him where he needs to go. But Abraham cannot follow the call of God and also stay where God found him.

Some who thought they wanted to follow Christ got snagged on this part of the call. “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Seems like a reasonable request to us—“honor your father and mother,” and all that. But Jesus replied, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” This man wanted to stick around and take care of business when the call of God led him across the lake. On one side were the spiritually dead; on the other was Life Himself.

Abraham had his choice, and we have ours. Will we follow or stay? We cannot have it both ways. Following Christ means leaving a lot behind—pet sins, “innate” personalities, long-held relationships, otherwise justifiable loyalties, comforts, and identities. But what an exchange! Following Christ also means becoming a son of God, inheriting the blessing of God, becoming a blessing to the rest of the world, and living as a citizen of the truly Eternal City. It means radical change from who we were to what God calls us to be, from a life that is doomed to a life full of never-ending love and joy and peace and holiness.

God calls. We follow. And the blessing of God follows us!

“God, we give thanks for Your call on our lives, and we pray we would be faithful followers. Do not leave us where we are, dear God, but take us where You want us to be, make us what You want us to be, mold us and shape us into the very image of Christ. Grant to us the grace to leave behind the world and our sins and whatever else that keeps us from following You; and grant to us the blessing You promise to all those who follow You, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

The Call (Part One)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:

‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

The call to Abraham was a specific call, but, as we can see clearly, both God’s call and Abraham’s answer had an impact, direct and indirect, on countless others, including you and me. Because God chose Abraham, because God honored His word, and because Abraham obeyed and followed God, your family and my family and all the world have received the blessing given in this one call.

God calls each one of us in a similar way. God may not call each one of us to leave our native land—especially at age seventy-five when most folks are thinking more about settling down! But God does call each of us, at least in one sense, to “leave his father and mother” (Genesis 2:24), begin to live his own life responsibly before God, and leave his own mark on the world. And we will, you know, one way or another. Whom I marry, how I raise a family, how I respond to life as it comes to me, what I do with both the little things and the big will all have an incredible effect on those whom my life touches in some way—those around me now, my own descendants, and all of the others (a lot more than one might think) who are affected indirectly by my obedience and disobedience, my maturity or lack thereof, my living-by-the-grace-of-God and faith.

God also calls each one of us to leave “the world” behind in following Him, just as He called Abraham to do. Abraham left behind a lot more than relatives. When he chose to answer the call and follow Jehovah, he left behind his gods. And he left behind an entire culture shaped by those gods. He left behind a life lived by faith in gods who cannot and will not deliver and began to live by faith in a God whose blessing reaches not only his life but throughout the world and throughout eternity.

As I said, this is our call as well. God has obviously called us to live in the physical world—that is the one He has created and the one in which He has planted us—so that is not the world from which He calls us. Rather, God calls us out of the world of sin/the flesh/and the devil that we might live in the world as citizens of another Country, blazing lights shining in what is otherwise darkness, citizens of the New World for which Christ has died and risen again, members of a New Family, a New Humanity, with Jesus Christ as our New Adam and faithful Father of All Nations.

Answer the call as Abraham did: by faith and in obedience. You have answered the call by following Christ and being separated from the world. Be a faithful follower, travel the course, plant yourself in the new land, lead your own family as those who inhabit a new culture and a new world, and look for the blessing of God not only to be poured out on your own family but to overflow to the whole world.

“Great and heavenly Father, we thank You for Your call to Abraham, for Your choosing him and blessing him, which blessing has reached to us. We give You thanks for Abraham’s faithfulness and obedience, and we pray You would make us like him, answering Your call to us, following You into new worlds, leaving behind the gods who do not satisfy. Thank You above all for our faithful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who also answered Your call with faith and obedience, resulting in our salvation and the salvation of the world; and we pray gratefully in His most holy and wonderful name. Amen.”

Like Weeds on a Spring Day

“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, an all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.


“Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, ‘I am with child.’’’
. . .

“So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’”
(2 Samuel 11:1–5; 12:13)

David’s sin involving Bathsheba was a progression of sins as so many of our sins are. Early sins were likely pride and self-satisfaction as he looked upon his accomplishments and basked in his own glory in Jerusalem. Next his basking turned to sloth and irresponsibility—in “the spring of the year, that time when kings go out to battle,” this king was at home in his leisure: idleness really is the devil’s workshop. His idleness turned to lust, his lust to theft and adultery, his adultery to deception and eventually murder. Had God not graciously stopped him in his tracks, his sin could have progressed to apostasy and self-destruction.

Just so, our sins can progress from bad to worse and to the unthinkable when they are not confessed, abhorred, and repented from. Confess sin quickly and thoroughly before your sins get the foothold they need to grow like weeds on a spring day. Nip sin in the bud through confession and genuine repentance. But just as with David, wherever you find yourself and your sin in that progression—at bud or full bloom—God stands ready not only to point the finger at your sin but to offer forgiveness, mercy, and the grace to do better, if we will come to Him freely, sincerely, and humbly, asking and looking for these things from His hand.

“Have mercy upon us, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin. Move us, dear God, by Your Holy Spirit to repent early and often, to know our sins and acknowledge them before they lead to yet other and more and worse sins. We give thanks to You, O Lord, for Your mercy towards us through our Lord Jesus Christ, for Your faithfulness to us, for the forgiveness of sins we have through Him; and we pray that mercy would continue throughout our lives and throughout all eternity; for Christ’s sake and in His name. Amen.”

Psalm 71: You Are My Trust from My Youth

In You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
Be my strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.

Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.

I have become as a wonder to many,
But You are my strong refuge.
Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,
Saying, “God has forsaken him;
Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
Let them be confounded and consumed
Who are adversaries of my life;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor
Who seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

O God, You have taught me from my youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.

Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You?
You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.

Also with the lute I will praise You—
And Your faithfulness, O my God!
To You I will sing with the harp,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.

Psalm 65: Morning Rejoicing for the Forgiveness of God

Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion;
And to You the vow shall be performed.
O You who hear prayer,
To You all flesh will come.
Iniquities prevail against me;
As for our transgressions,
You will provide atonement for them.

Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Or Your holy temple.

By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us,
O God of our salvation,
You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And of the far-off seas;
Who established the mountains by His strength,
Being clothed with power;
You who still the noise of the seas,
The noise of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
They also who dwell in the farthest parts are afraid of Your signs;
You make the outgoings of the morning and evening rejoice.

You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
The river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain,
For so You have prepared it.
You water its ridges abundantly,
You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers,
You bless its growth.

You crown the year with Your goodness,
And Your paths drip with abundance.
They drop on the pastures of the wilderness,
And the little hills rejoice on every side.
The pastures are clothed with flocks;
The valleys also are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing.

Psalm 36: Like the Great Mountains

An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes,
For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates.
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
He ceased to be wise and to do good.
He devises wickedness on his bed;
He sets himself in a way that is not good
He does not abhor evil.

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is  like the great mountains;
Your judgments are a great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life;
In your light we see light.

Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of pride come against me,
And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the workers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been cast down and are not able to rise.

Psalm 30: Joy Comes in the Morning

I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried out to You,
And You healed me.
O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.

Now in my prosperity I said,
“I shall never be moved.”
Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
I cried out to You, O Lord;
And to the Lord I made supplication:
“What profit is there in my blood,
When I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;
Lord, be my helper!”

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

Psalm 40: Wait Patiently for the Lord

I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord.

Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust,
And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You n order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.”

I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness
In the great assembly;
Indeed, I do not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You Yourself know.
I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly.

Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord;
Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.
For innumberable evils have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
They are more than the hairs of my head;
Therefore my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion
Who seek to destroy my life;
Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor
Who wish me evil.
Let them be confounded because of their shame.
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
But I am poor and needy;
Yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.

Like Water from a Rock

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:2–8)

Here is another of those paradoxes God seems to throw at us sideways: when trouble comes, count it a joy. How insensitive of Him! Doesn’t He know trouble means sorrow, not joy? God might as well command water from a rock as to command joy in the midst of trials.

Come to think of it, God did command water from a rock. And it was indeed in the midst of a trial. When the children of Israel grew thirsty in the wilderness, their response was to complain, whine, despair, panic, and blame. Surely we cannot blame them—I mean, after all, there were millions of them, livestock as well, in the middle of a desert, hot sun scorching them, Arabic winds blowing sand into their eyes and throat, tongues clinging to the roofs of their mouths. Surely if anyone had excuse to complain, it was these poor, suffering, displaced people.

But the God who brought water from the rock in order to quench their thirst is the God who brings joy in the midst of the worst of troubles. Sound impossible? With man it certainly is—goes directly against his grain and grates against the fabric of his soul—but with God all things are possible. God give us no choice: we must walk through the desert, we must pass through the fire, we must fall into various trials—and we must count it all joy. But wherever God calls us, He also gives the power to follow.

That is why we must ask from God—God, who gives liberally and without reproach. If God is the one who brings water gushing from rocks enough to satisfy millions, turns gallons of water into gallons of wine for the delight of partying wedding guests, and throws open tombs and gives life to the dead, then certainly He can and will grant to us the wisdom and joy and patience and faith we need in the middle of our own trouble, whatever the case may be.

Leave it to God to command the impossible; leave it to God to bring it about. With God, sorrow becomes joy, trouble gives birth to strong faith and patience, and wisdom is poured out from above just for the asking. As for us? We are to believe and obey, trust and follow, ask and receive—and count it all joy!—knowing God is up to something big and good and full of wonder.

“Lord God, we give thanks to You for Your wise use of the trials You have brought into our lives, and we pray You would grant to us joy and patience and wisdom and faith as we encounter each of them. Grant to us grace, dear God, to follow You and trust You through the impossible, looking to You to perform the impossible, looking to You to do all things right according to Your own wisdom and good purpose and glory. Great, benevolent, and liberal God! please hear our prayer and grant these things to us for Your own name’s sake, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Lights Shining in the Darkness

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14–16)

There are approaches to “good works” that are just plain wrong, of course. First, we should not do good works in order to earn our way into God’s grace or somehow build up enough “credit” to win our way into heaven. Grace is exactly what we don’t deserve, and grace is the only way to be saved. We are being saved from our sins and the punishment they deserve, and all the good works in the world cannot help one iota but only the grace of God.

We also are instructed by God not to do good works in order simply to be seen by men or to win the praise of men. Later in this same sermon (the famed “Sermon on the Mount”) Jesus says specifically, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1) If our only goal in doing good is to win the praise of others or to stoke up our own ego or merely to “keep up appearances,” i.e., do enough to make sure people think well of us, then our good works are all for the wrong reason.

But here Jesus says our good works themselves are to be so abundant, so remarkable, so evident, and so representative of our lives overall that they shine out as lights in this dark world of evil. We Christians are to stick out simply by being good Christians. We are to love God and others so much that people can’t help but notice. We are to live by such faith in every circumstance—and especially the bad ones—that people are amazed and perhaps even long for (and hopefully pray for) that kind of faith themselves. Our good works should be so profuse, simply because that is what the Spirit of God is doing in us, that they can’t help but be notable.

Motive matters, of course. Jesus says here the end result will be that men “glorify your Father in heaven” when they see your good works. Our desire should be that God receives the praise and the glory and credit for anything good done in us or through us. But if we are not doing any good works, or if our good works are done in a corner somewhere—perhaps for fear someone might mistake us for being a Christian, heaven forbid—then no light is shining, the darkness is still winning out in your arena, and the God of all glory and wonder is not being glorified.

So the way to “shine your light” is not to put a spotlight on yourself so others can see you and ooh and aah. Rather the way to shine as lights in the world is to trust God, obey God, do His will, and seek His glory, in every circumstance and before all men, and the rest will take care of itself.

“Great and glorious God in heaven above, we give You thanks for sending our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Light of the world, to shine in the darkness, that we might know You and come to the Light ourselves. Make of us, dear God, lights that shine in the world, exposing evil, driving out darkness, bringing glory to You , O God. Move within us by Your Holy Spirit in such a way—fill us with Him, dear God—that we are overflowing with such good works that they incite the praise and wonder of men for the great works of God done in and through mere men. For we are saved entirely by Your grace—not of works, lest any man should boast—and we are saved for good works, that You might be glorified forever and ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Psalm 80: Restore Us, O God!

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!
Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
Stir up Your strength,
And come and save us!

Restore us, O God;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!

O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry
Against the prayer of Your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in great measure.
You have made us a strife to our neighbors,
And our enemies laugh among themselves.

Restore us, O God of hosts;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!

You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
You prepared room for it,
And caused it to take deep root,
And it filled the land.
The hills were covered with its shadow,
And the mighty cedars with its boughs.
She sent out her boughs to the Sea,
And her branches to the River.

Why have You broken down her hedges,
So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
The boar out of the woods uproots it,
And the wild beast of the field devours it.

Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts;
Look down from heaven and see,
And visit this vine
And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted,
And the branch that You made strong for Yourself.
It is burned with fire, it is cut down;
They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
Then we will not turn back from You;
Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!

Avoiding Sexual Temptation (Part Five)

18“Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with love.
19For my husband is not at home;
He has gone on a long journey;
20He has taken a bag of money with him,
And will come home on the appointed day.”
21With her enticing speech she caused him to yield.
With her flattering lips she seduced him.
22Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
23Till an arrow struck his liver.
As a bird hastens to the snare,
He did not know it would cost his life.
24Now therefore, listen to me, my children;
Pay attention to the words of my mouth:
25Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways,
Do not stray into her paths;
26For she has cast down many wounded,
And all who were slain by her were strong men.
27Her house is the way to hell,
Descending to the chambers of death.
(Proverbs 7:18–27)

• Consider the emptiness (v. 18). Though you take your “fill of love” all the night long, you will come up empty in the morning. There is no lasting satisfaction to any sin, and certainly none in the sexual sort. The delight is short-lived, while the trouble and sorrow may last a lifetime (or longer). Instead, delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the [true] desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4), i.e., delight yourself in passionate love for God (which always includes obedience to Him), since only He can provide that true satisfaction for which your soul is seeking.
• Consider the theft (v. 19). Lust desires what God has not promised; fornication and adultery take what God has not given to you but to another. Covetousness and theft are born of the same root sin: dissatisfaction with God and His gifts. If you lust for an unmarried woman or, worse, actually engage in some sort of sexual sin with her, remember, she belongs to others. For one, she has a father on earth, who has not given her to you or any man until the “I do” at the altar. For another, she has a future husband, whose precious lamb you rob and ruin before he even has sight of her. And lastly, she has a heavenly Father, who sees all and knows how to avenge. If your lust is for a married woman, it is all that, only far worse. “Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding;/He who does so destroys his own soul./Wounds and dishonor he will get,/And his reproach will not be wiped away” (Proverbs 6:32, 33)
• Consider the end (vv. 22–27). Ox to the slaughter, fool to the stocks, arrow in the liver, bird in the snare. Any way you cut it, the man who gives in to sexual temptation is on the downward slope and gaining speed. You may think you are strong enough, you may think “it won’t happen” to you; but every fool who found his way to her house thought the same fool thing. Take the warning of Solomon and the Holy Spirit: “Do not stray into her paths.” Do not go—do not start—down that road for anything—it leads to certain loss of some sort (damaged marriages, ruined reputations, etc.) and the possibility of apostasy and damnation to boot. Repent, guard your heart, discipline yourself to godliness. By God’s grace pursue blamelessness and holiness in this area as in all others. Not only your happiness (and that of others), but your very life and salvation could well depend on it.

“Great and sovereign and merciful God, have mercy on us and lead us in paths of righteousness. By Your Holy Spirit remind us continually of the folly of sexual sin and all sin, and keep us from all covetousness, adultery, and theft. Instead, dear God, fill us with Yourself, fill us with an overwhelming desire for You and Your will, and grant to us complete contentment with all the good gifts You have given us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

 

Avoiding Sexual Temptation (Part Four)

13So she caught him and kissed him;
With an impudent face she said to him:
14“I have peace offerings with me;
Today I have paid my vows.
15So I came out to meet you,
Diligently to seek your face,
And I have found you.
16I have spread my bed with tapestry,
Colored coverings of Egyptian linen.
17I have perfumed my bed
With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.”
(Proverbs 7:13–17)

• Don’t be fooled by the “good girl” syndrome or a religious façade (vv. 14, 15). The woman Solomon mentions here came straight from church. There are women as well as men who use religion not only as a cover for their sins but as part of their seduction. Just as Satan can appear as an “angel of light” in order to deceive, so can “a good Christian girl,” seeking religious approval on the one hand while she tempts sexually on the other. And of course, a man can lust for a woman who truly is a good Christian. But you must remember that, were she to live out your fantasies about her, she would be a “harlot,” “adulteress,” “immoral woman,” just the same.

• Don’t be fooled by a false understanding of the gospel (vv. 14, 15). A distorted understanding of the grace and forgiveness of God can trip up man and woman alike. If we find ourselves falling into sexual sin (mental or otherwise), confessing it regularly to God, asking for forgiveness, feeling a bit of relief, and then running out to commit the same sin all over again, part of the gospel message and life is not getting through, namely the part about repentance and holiness. God forgives us so we can live righteously, not so we can have a relieved conscience and then open ourselves right back up to temptation. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1, 2) “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators . . . nor adulterers . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11)

• Don’t be fooled by the accompanying attractions of sexual sin (vv. 16, 17). The smells, the sights, the tastes, the “joy,” the “satisfaction,” etc., are all as fleeting as a wisp of smoke. John Bunyan appropriately named one of his sexual-temptation characters in Pilgrim’s Progress “Bubble.” “Oh! Look how pretty!”—pop! It is a dream, and when you wake up, it may well be too late, you may be in the claws of misery, destruction, and death itself. Instead, look always to the beauties of Christ and the beauty of holiness to which He calls you. Sexuality is beautiful and full of joy but only in the context of faithful, monogamous, sacrificial, and loving marriage. Sex outside the boundaries set by God always, without exception, has a nasty, wormwood bite to it in the end: “For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey,/And her mouth is smoother than oil;/But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,/Sharp as a two-edged sword.” (Proverbs 7:3, 4)

“Lord God, we give thanks this day for Your saving grace, a grace that goes so far as to save us from sexual sin as well as any other. Thank You for the forgiveness of sins in our Lord Jesus Christ and for Your patient longsuffering with us as we stumble along in our repentance. Grant us the grace to believe the whole gospel, to repent fully and desire holiness; give us wisdom to see the emptiness and futility of sexual sin regardless the overwhelming attraction; and make us to despise anything that is apart from Your holy will. Grant us instead, by Your grace, happy homes with happy marriages, and by Your Spirit help us to do the hard work such marriages require. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Avoiding Sexual Temptation (Part Three)

11She was loud and rebellious,
Her feet would not stay at home.
12At times she was outside, at times in the open square,
Lurking at every corner.
13So she caught him and kissed him; . . .
21With her enticing speech she caused him to yield,
With her flattering lips she seduced him.
(Proverbs 7:11–13, 21)

Whether single or married, in seeking to avoid sexual temptation, the Scripture admonishes men to be wary of:

• Rebellious, unfaithful, and disloyal women (v. 11; see also v. 19). If a woman is not trustworthy with others, why do you not believe she is deceiving you as well? (She has “a crafty heart”—v. 10.) Such a woman does not have your best interest at heart! If a woman talks disrespectfully or disloyally about her parents or her husband, you are a fool to think you might fare better. A woman who is unfaithful in other ways is a prime suspect for sexual infidelity as well.

• Loud, clamorous, and overly-talkative women (v. 11). “A foolish woman is clamorous.” (Proverbs 9:13—see v. 17 also: the woman described here is an adulteress) “Chatty Cathy” is often a flirt. Loud and raucous women are often that way because they are seeking the attention and approval of men.

• Women who flatter and give lots of and frequent praise (vv. 5, 21). Part of an overly-talkative woman's “strategy” involves lots of “flattering speech.” “Oooh, you’re so strong!” “You’re such a good listener”; “You’re so understanding”; “Your wife sure is lucky to have such a great guy for a husband.” Certainly some women are just very nice and complimentary; you don’t want to be paranoid. But at the same time, women intuitively know men are looking for respect and words of praise and honor, and if a woman wants to attract a man’s attention, she can do it with flattery and praise. This can be true for any man, but especially for those with low self-esteem or a lack of confidence. Men (and women) looking to feel better about themselves are prime targets for sexual temptation and sexual sin.

• Women who are oriented away from home and family (vv. 11, 12). Sexual attraction and sexual relationships are intended for home, husbands, and happy families. Single women who are more oriented toward the “single scene,” or married women who are more interested in trying to keep on living as if they were single, are often going to be more sexually aggressive and for all the wrong reasons. Watch out for dissatisfied housewives, who themselves are often seduced by men or a romantic fantasy.

• Intimate, physical contact with a woman unless you are married to her (v. 13). (Of course hugs and kisses of a non-sexual type are appropriate for mothers and sisters—but you know what I mean.) Giving in “just a little” is usually sin in and of itself, but normally it leads to “much more” anyway. The question “where to draw the line” is usually answered too late. Both men and women become “hooked” emotionally, relationally, and physically the more they succumb to physical, and especially sensual, touching. If a woman or a girl is touching you a lot, putting arms around you, hugging you, getting close to you, kissing you, etc., she is a flirt and most likely a “needy” girl. “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” (1 Corinthians 7:1)

“Heavenly Father, give us men and women who are faithful, and make of us the same. Give us wisdom in our relationships that we might preserve integrity and promote the true love of God and our neighbor. Give wisdom and grace to our sons, husbands, and fathers; grant grace and wisdom likewise to our daughters, wives, and mothers—make of us all the men and women You want us to be, men and women who reflect the glory and purity and holiness of God as found in our faithful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Avoiding Sexual Temptation (Part Two)

And there a woman met him,
With the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart. (Proverbs 7:10)

• Guard your eyes. Follow Job’s example: “I have made a covenant with my eyes;/Why then should I look upon a young woman?” (Job 31:1) While the heart is always at the root of a sin problem, the eyes are obviously a primary portal by which the world and all its trappings enter into that heart. So if you encounter a woman (or a picture of one) who is immodestly dressed or provocatively dressed, it is advisable to avert your eyes; and if you are required to talk to such a person or be in her company, it is equally advised to keep your eyes at eye-level. The eyes must be disciplined just as any other part of the body.

Whether an immodestly-dressed woman realizes it or not, her dress is meant for seduction—she is soliciting you sexually. Don’t be sucked in by it. But even if a woman is dressed appropriately, a man can look too long and too longingly. Don’t stare—it’s not only rude, it can be dangerous.

Determine not to seek out women or pictures of women who you know will be dressed immodestly, seductively, or in a sexually provocative manner. And if you are a woman, don’t dress in such a way as to seduce. A woman can look attractive without being seductive. Some see gray lines here (“who’s to say?”), but the Bible explicitly teaches that there is such a thing as “the attire of a harlot”: if you care about pleasing God and loving your neighbor, learn what that sort of attire is, and don’t wear it.

• Guard your heart, soul, and mind. “Keep your heart with all diligence,/For out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) “Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;/He who guards his soul will be far from them.” (Proverbs 22:5) Going down the wrong path often means taking that path solely in your mind; and “looking” at a woman may simply mean replaying in your memory sights already taken in. If it is wrong to look and lust, it is just as wrong to remember and lust.

Sometimes wrong thoughts cross the mind and may seemingly come out of nowhere. Throw them out immediately; tell them they are not welcome here. Flee tempting thoughts just as vigorously as you might flee flesh-and-blood temptations. Luther gave this wise admonition: “You cannot keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” And you are far less likely to be tempted by immoral thoughts if your head is filled with what is good, true, pure, and honorable to begin with (Philippians 4:8, 9).

Likewise, don’t give your heart and affections and mental attentions to anyone other than your spouse, even if it appears to have no association with your external behavior. Married or not, don’t fantasize. Don’t let your imagination take you running down a path to immoral thoughts—thoughts that represent immoral actions were they acted out in “real” life. Whether you are looking at a live woman, looking at a picture, or letting your imagination conduct the entire show, sexual fantasies are sin, and there is no place for them in the mind of a Christian man or woman.

“Dear God in heaven above, we give You thanks for the eyes in our head and for our ability to behold the beauty of Your creation. We pray that we would be equally attracted to the beauty of Your holiness and that our eyes and hearts would be attuned to both. Help us to discipline our eyes and thoughts and affections to do Your will at all times; deliver us from evil and immoral thoughts, feelings, and actions. Forgive our waywardness, and help us in our repentance, that we might live purely before You in all true manliness and femininity as the men and women You created us to be. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Avoiding Sexual Temptation (Part One)

1My son, keep my words,
And treasure my commands within you.
2Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye.
3Bind them on your fingers;
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your nearest kin,
5That they may keep you from the immoral woman,
From the seductress who flatters with her words.
6For at the window of my house
I looked through my lattice,
7And saw among the simple,
I perceived among the youths,
A young man devoid of understanding,
8Passing along the street near her corner;
And he took the path to her house
9In the twilight, in the evening,
In the black and dark night.
(Proverbs 7:1–9)

• Be wise—don’t be a fool! (vv. 1, 2) The way of wisdom leads to life. The greatest men who ever fell into this sin were playing the part of a fool when they did. Choose to live wisely at every turn.

• Keep yourself immersed in the Word of God and prayer. (v. 3) “How can a young man cleanse his way?/By taking heed according to Your word. . . . Your word I have hidden in my heart,/That I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:9, 11)

• Remember the Law of God at all times. (vv. 2, 3) “You shall not commit adultery. . . . You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” (Exod. 20:14, 17) “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28)

• Don’t hang out with “fools,” whether they have this “problem” or not (foolishness breeds foolishness). (v. 7) “He who walks with wise men will be wise./But the companion of fools will be destroyed.” (Proverbs 13:20) “Bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Cor. 15:33)

• Learn to recognize immorality in other people. (v. 5) Look beyond the lipstick. What is in the heart?

• Don’t place yourself in the way of temptation (avoid the “path of the sinner”). (v. 8) If you want to miss the home of sin, don’t go down her street! This often means: turn off the TV; miss the movie; avoid certain bookstores or certain parts of the bookstore; keep somebody with you who will hold you accountable or “keep you safe”; don’t get alone with somebody of the opposite sex (to whom you are not married or closely kin, of course); literally, don’t meet with her at her house (esp. if no one else is around or there are rooms you can sneak off to); get a filter or monitor for the Internet, or get rid of it altogether; don’t talk on the cell phone without accountability; avoid the mall or certain sections of the mall, etc.

• Avoid secrecy—live an open, honest life of integrity. (v. 9) Determine not to do anything that you would not be comfortable having your wife, husband, parents, or someone you respect looking in on it. God is always looking in on it. This is not an exhortation to air all of our dirty laundry for everyone to see—that is not helpful most of the time. But someone should know where we are, what we are doing, and even to a certain extent the state of our thought life, pretty much all of the time. If you are looking at things on the Internet that you would not want your wife to see, you have a problem with secrecy and you are opening yourself up to sexual temptation and sin. If you are having conversations with people you would not want your husband to hear, likewise, you are in danger. Live in the light. Live in such a way that were your entire life—every moment—exposed for all, you would not be ashamed.

“Dear God, our minds, our affections, our hearts, our bodies—all of these belong to You, O God, for You have made us and redeemed us—we have been bought at a great price, the price of Your own Son’s blood. Keep us from sin, we pray, dear God; guard us from immorality of any shade, shape, or form. Fill our hearts and lives with Your Holy Spirit that we might be holy as You are holy, pure as our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Psalm 143: Lovingkindness in the Morning

Pray it slow, with heart and mind engaged at every phrase.

Hear my prayer, O Lord,
Give ear to my supplications!
In Your faithfulness answer me,
And in Your righteousness.
Do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
For in Your sight no one living is righteous.

For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
He has crushed my life to the ground;
He has made me dwell in darkness,
Like those who have long been dead.
Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;
My heart within me is distressed.

I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your works;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
I spread out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You like a thirsty land. (Selah)

Answer me speedily, O Lord;
My spirit fails!
Do not hide Your face from me,
Lest I be like those who go down into the pit.
Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,
For in You do I trust;
Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
For I lift up my soul to You.

Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies;
In You I take shelter.
Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Your Spirit is good.
Lead me in the land of uprightness.

Revive me, O Lord, for your name’s sake!
For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.
In Your mercy cut off my enemies,
And destroy all those who afflict my soul;
For I am Your servant.

Holy Spirit Coming

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
. . .

“‘But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.”’”
(Acts 2:1–4, 16–21)

“Lord God, we give You thanks this day for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Your Church, and as Your menservants and maidservants we pray that we would be filled with Your Holy Spirit, that You would loose our tongues to proclaim the gospel, and that by Your Holy Spirit You would conform our lives to live by it. We call upon Your name, O Lord, and look to You alone for the gifts that come through the power of the Holy Spirit. Blow the Spirit-Wind of God into our lives, burn away by the Fire of the Spirit all worthlessness remaining, do great and mighty things in us and through us, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be magnified and that Your holy kingdom might be spread through all the world as the waters cover the seas. So we pray in the name of our Creator, Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”

The Root of All Good Marriages: Knowing and Loving God (Part Three)

“Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies;
For they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the ancients,
Because I keep Your precepts.” (Psalm 119:97–100)

We need then to take a close look at what God has to say in His Word about living life the right way and then specifically apply it to our marriages. A lot of different approaches could be taken to do this (the Bible is a pretty big book), but I think one of the very best ways is to take a close look at God’s moral will as revealed in the Ten Commandments.

Why the Ten Commandments?

God’s Word is, among other things, a Law-Book. The word “law” automatically conjures up ideas in our heads, and, frankly, some people, including some Christians, don’t like the word or the concept. That’s too bad. Without “law” the whole world would fall apart, of course. God built law into the world because He Himself is a God who obeys laws, in a sense. That is, He is free to do anything He wants, of course, but He will never violate His own character. God is a law unto Himself. It would certainly be (and is) bad for you and me to be “a law unto ourselves,” but it is great for God. God is holy, and He can never cease to be holy—for God to cease to be holy would mean God would cease to be God. And because God is holy and will always be holy, God’s holiness becomes a “law” in the universe for all time: all that conforms to His holiness is good (obeys the law), and all that does not conform to His holiness is bad (“sin”).

So “law” is good, especially if we think of it as that which conforms to the character and/or will of God. Certainly there are bad laws created by men. And then there are sometimes good laws that are used by bad people or interpreted wrongly or applied badly. But the idea of law in and of itself should not be regarded by us as a bad thing. Law is good. Law-less-ness is bad. Indeed, that is exactly how the Bible defines sin at one point: “Sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)

That is why I say God’s Word, the Bible, is a Law-Book of sorts. In the Bible is recorded, by God’s own hand, a description of God’s character and the things God likes and doesn’t like. In the Bible God reveals to us His own mind on things—including things like marriage and relationships and how to be a good husband or a good wife. If we follow His law, His ways, His direction, leaning entirely upon His grace in doing so, we will have a much greater chance of having the kind of marriages God designed us for—in other words, good ones.

“Lord God, whose Word is Law and whose Law is our good, teach us what You are like and how we are supposed to be. Help us to hate and forsake all those things that are contrary to Your holy character and to love all that conforms to it. Grant to us the wisdom and knowledge that comes from knowing and keeping all of Your commands, and transform our marriages accordingly, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

The Root of All Good Marriages: Knowing and Loving God (Part Two)

“I love those who love me,
And those who seek me diligently will find me.” (Proverbs 8:17)

The degree to which you know and love God determines without exception the degree to which you will have success in knowing and loving your spouse.

Why is that? One of the reasons for this is that knowing and loving God results in becoming like Him. God is good, faithful, loving, and kind: those who love Him, admire Him, are in awe of Him, and lap up the wisdom found in Him will automatically grow to be more and more good, faithful, loving, and kind themselves. The same is true in regard to any characteristic or attribute of God: you “become” what you love. I don’t mean you become God, of course, but that you become “god-ly,” that is, like God. And there is no truly happy home unless it is first a godly home.

Another reason knowing and loving God is the root of all good marriages is that knowing and loving God means having God on your side. If you are building anything, but especially in building a marriage, you need to have God on your side because just about everything and everybody else, it seems, is pulling down as fast as you put up. Every marriage has its enemies: among them are the devil himself and the whole world of folks all around you who often act like the devil, not to mention your own tendency to do the stupid thing and sin a good bit of the time. God loves and cares for those who love Him, and the more you are “in good” with God, the more you are going to call on Him in time of need, fight with the weapons He supplies you, and follow His directions in the midst of the battle. Like Nehemiah and the warrior-builders at the Jerusalem wall (Nehemiah 4:17), we need a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other—and a prayer continually on our lips because “unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1).

Yet another reason knowing and loving God has to come first in any marriage is the fact that God is your Creator. If anybody knows what makes for a good, successful marriage, it is the God who set it all up in the first place. God really does know best, and He is not sitting up there in heaven trying to keep His wisdom-for-living a secret from you or anybody else. The invitation is open to anyone who is willing to learn this stuff, but if you are not sitting at His feet, using His textbook, memorizing His diagrams and formulas, and if you are not taking what you are learning and applying it in the great lab-room of life, you are just flat-out going to fail, no question.

The question is, Do you really want to get to know God and learn to love Him? Do you really want to know Him and know what He thinks is important—about Himself, about the world, about yourself, about your spouse, about marriage? If you do, I have good news: God promises that those who come looking for Him (earnestly and sincerely) will, without fail, find Him.

“Lord God, we pray again You would make us like You, for You are the perfect Spouse and You do all things right in Your own marriage to us. Teach us according to Your Word and by Your Holy Spirit how we are to conduct ourselves in our marriages. You alone have created us, and You alone have created the institution of marriage; so You alone can really teach us and guide us in our own marriages. We pray, dear God, we would know You and love You above all others and that You would grant us the grace to really know and love our own spouses. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

The Root of All Good Marriages: Knowing and Loving God

“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” (1 John 4:20, 21)

We are perhaps getting tired of hearing the same old statistics concerning marriage and divorce, but it is sobering to think that every other marriage doesn’t make it. This is not only true “out there” in the bad and wooly wildlands of general society but also right in the very living room of the church. I am a member of a fairly (if we have to use labels) theologically conservative, evangelical church, and I can throw a rock into a typical congregation like ours on any given Sunday morning (I wouldn’t do this, of course) and have an excellent chance of hitting someone whose family has been touched somewhere by divorce. That’s bad enough. Sad thing is, however, I could throw another rock and have a fairly good chance of hitting someone whose marriage is currently “challenged” at best and careening at worst, possibly someone who needs to do some quick U-turning and make some rather drastic life-changes, to avoid the rocks upon which so many around them have been wrecking their marriages.

Maybe things are better where you are sitting, but I don’t think that scenario is so atypical. If things are that bad—and I think both the statistics and experience indicate that they are—then we need to be asking why: Why can’t married people these days have a better expectation of getting it “right”? I am fully convinced the answer is found in our general lack of knowing and loving. But I don’t mean our lack of knowing and loving our spouses—that is obvious enough. I mean instead that our primary deficiency is in knowing and loving God.

The fact that we don’t love our spouses like we should is actually the main clue here. The apostle John put it this way (1 John 4:20): if you can’t love the brother (read “husband/wife” in this context) sitting in the pew, lying in the bed, sitting at the table right next to you, however in the world do you make it out that you are doing a fair to excellent job of loving the “invisible” God? I hear someone saying, “But I never claimed to be good at loving God.” To the which I say, again, That is precisely the root to your every problem, and, in particular, it is the root to your marriage problem. The degree to which you know and love God determines without exception the degree to which you will have success in knowing and loving your spouse.

“Dear heavenly Father, teach us to love our spouses by teaching us to love You supremely and well. Grant that we would love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and grant that we would therefore love our closest neighbor—our husband or wife—as ourselves. Grant healing to our marriages, to the marriages in the Church and in our society, building the only solid foundation for them on a thriving, never-dying, ever-growing-and-deepening love for You, dear God, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Psalm 142: Bring My Soul Out of Prison

I cry out to the Lord with my voice;
With my voice to the Lord I make my supplication.
I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare before Him my trouble.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,
Then You knew my path.
In the way in which I walk
They have secretly set a snare for me.
Look on my right hand and see,
For there is no one who acknowledges me;
Refuge has failed me;
No one cares for my soul.

I cried out to You, O Lord:
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
Attend to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise Your name;
The righteous shall surround me,
For You shall deal bountifully with me.”

God Works (Part Five)

“But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’” (John 5:17)

One of the best ways to teach children not only to work but to love work and enjoy work is to have them be your “little helpers.” Doing work together is almost always more enjoyable than working alone, or at least it is for those who are learning a task and may find it overwhelming otherwise. My six-year-old will pick up his toys on his own, but we still occasionally have “races” to see who can pick up the most blocks or cars or trains first. We have always enjoyed working in the yard together as a family, and my children have seen firsthand how “many hands make light work.” Even adults, I think, really enjoy doing tasks (like cooking or cleaning or yard work) together, and if they don’t, it often stems from bad experiences where perhaps they were criticized or ridiculed in some way.

Which criticism don’t do. The way to help someone improve is usually through praise for what has been done well, encouragement, and gentle direction: “That’s great! You’re really good at that! Now let me show you a little trick that will help you do even better. Keep up the good work—you’ll get the hang of it in no time.” This is especially important where little children are concerned.

Criticism or too exacting standards will diminish confidence and create passive children who are willing for others (who can do it “better”) to do things for them or instead of them. And even if these children do learn how to do things and are by the nature of things forced to do them because life’s work simply comes to them, if they have been criticized, they will never really feel good about the job they have done, will never feel like things are good enough, and will never really feel the satisfaction all good work leads to. After all, God the Father Himself, who really is perfect, condescends to include us in His work and encourages us and rewards us, even though our very best efforts are bound to fall far short.

Speaking of rewards, teach children the reward of work as well. Not all work can be rewarded monetarily, and that is not really a very true picture of life anyway, since nobody pays us money to make our own beds, cook our own meals, and do our own laundry. But all work can be rewarded with praise, which is usually far more important to children than money anyway. Some jobs ought to be “paid for,” however, and this is helpful in teaching children about money as well: how to tithe, how to save, how to give, and that the things of life are not only given to us by God (for which we ought always to be grateful) but they are earned, worked for. Even the gifts God gives us cost Him and others something. Things have value and are worth working for.

God works—for our sakes and for His own glory. He made us in His image, and He has given us our work too—which leads to the very same things: not only our own provision but good gifts and service to others and ultimately to the glory of God who gives us all things—including work—to enjoy. When we follow in His steps and seek to be like our heavenly Father, we will find ourselves delighting in the labor of our hands and heart and minds as well as in all the glorious fruits that come from such labor.

“Great God in heaven above, we give thanks this day for Your wonderful love for us that includes Your never-ending work on our behalf. We pray once again that You would make us like You: that we would work diligently for Your glory, for Your kingdom, for the good of others, as well as to the satisfaction of ourselves. Grant us joy in the midst of our labors, and give us the fruit of our hands, we pray, dear God, in the name of our blessed Lord and Savior. Amen.”

God Works (Part Four)

“But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’” (John 5:17)

One of the huge breakdowns in our culture, in our understanding of work and in our simple accomplishment of it, is in our lack of teaching and requiring work of our little ones. So much of what our children learn is in the home, and oftentimes work is either not required of them or it is distorted for them.

For example, sometimes all children see of their fathers is that they “go off” to work and return home to rest. And we all think of this as “fair” and sort of “the way it should be.” But one of the bad things about this (and there are other bad things about it) is that the children never really see Dad working. Or if they do, it is minimal: mowing the grass once a week or changing the oil occasionally or something of that sort. And that is certainly good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Children need to see their fathers as workers, like God is a worker. They may know you go away to work, but such work is where they can’t see you and learn from you. Children need to learn how to work from the example of their parents, and especially from their dads. I am not suggesting Dad ought to come home and work at night to the exclusion of spending time with the family, but rather I am talking about Dad working with Mom and the children to do the stuff that needs doing around the house: fixing meals, cleaning up, fixing problems, vacuuming, yard work, family projects—the home should be a place of activity and not simply “playful” activity. If all the children know of their interaction with Dad is “play” or, far worse, watching TV, they are not learning one of life’s most valuable lessons from him: that true leaders are not those who simply point the finger and have others work for them but are rather the hardest workers of all, servants to their wives, to their families, to their communities, to God.

It is, of course, extremely important for children to see their moms working hard as well, and this is, unfortunately, sometimes just as much a problem. A lot of moms work outside the home these days, and the home becomes for them as well more of a haven of rest than a place of activity. But more often than not, even in a day of men and women both working outside the home, it is still more likely the woman does more of the daily chores around the house than the man, or if she doesn’t, she certainly gets the blame for it. Along with the children, wives need to see their husbands working and husbands their wives. It is good for the marriage as well as for the kids.

So children need to see their parents working. But they also need to be required to work themselves. Parents who do everything for their children may think they are serving their children well, but in reality the best service you can do for your children is to teach them how to care for themselves, care for the world God has put them in, and care for others. When parents do everything for their children, they are doing them a great disservice. Teach your children, from an early age, to pitch in and do their share—to work. Don’t require of them more than they can handle, but they can usually handle a lot more than you think. Little children can learn to fold towels and washcloths, pick up their toys, help in the yard, take off their dishes after meals, straighten their beds in the morning, even help collect the trash. Train up a child to be like God-who-works when he is little, and he stands a much better chance of being a godly worker when he is old.

“God grant us to be like You, dear heavenly Father, and make us good examples as fathers and mothers to our own children in the way that we work and train them to work. Make them good workers as well, dear God, that they might reflect Your glory as they fulfill the joyful purpose for which You created them. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.”

God Works (Part Three)

“For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things [healed a man] on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’” (John 5:16, 17)


Examples of how slothfulness “destroys” the world (Proverbs 18:19) are numerous:


1. One may be too lazy to get the education needed to improve the mind and skills God gave him, his family suffers, the world is not helped, the kingdom of God is impeded.

2. Because a man plops down in front of the television or computer every night for hours on end instead of developing good relationships with his children and/or his wife, his family falls apart, his children leave the faith, his children are lost when it comes time for them to raise their own family, and future generations suffer from the breakdown in his own generation, i.e., when he was at the helm.

3. Because a man (along with a whole lot of other Christians) does not work hard enough at making his family’s budget work with a slot for tithing, the work of God suffers, people/cities/entire nations are not evangelized, and the world hobbles on apart from the gospel that brings light and peace and a better world (from which, by the way, his own progeny would benefit).

And the list goes on and on and on. Work is good. Work is not only good, it is very much the good that “makes the world go round,” so to speak. Work makes things happen, and when things don’t happen, things happen. Put less cryptically, work makes the things that ought to happen happen, and when those good things don’t happen, bad things happen instead.

The eighth commandment speaks to the matter of work in this way: Don’t steal. The idea of stealing—taking what belongs to others—presupposes the idea of private property. God created us as individuals who live in community. Just as God is one God but in Three Persons, distinctly Three but living together as One, even so we are to live as distinct individuals with distinctly separate responsibilities, characteristics, goals, accomplishments, gifts, and experiences, but in harmony and unity with one another. People have “boundaries,” and those need to be recognized or there will be trouble.

Everyone should work to meet his own needs: “sponging” or “leeching” is one form of stealing from others. But people do not fulfill their responsibilities by merely working to have their own “separate stuff.” People are to work to give as well. This is the exhortation of the Scriptures Old and New: Work to supply your own needs and to have something to give to others. “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.”(Ephesians 4:28)

So the eighth commandment presupposes work also. Work is not just a good idea, it is essential to living the Trinitarian life God created for us. We are to be busy creating, tilling, tending, caring for, beautifying the world and the people He created, joining Him in His great work of creation and redemption. And failure to do so is theft. Let him who stole steal no longer: work instead!

“God, we give You thanks for all those who have worked in times past and for the myriads working even now from whose work we benefit, and we pray You would make us diligent to work hard and faithfully in our own little corner of the world, knowing our work affects all the world as well. Teach us to live in harmony with one another, the blessed Trinity as our example; teach us to work to give not merely to get or take from one another. We look to You to supply us all of our needs and pray we would be like You in supplying the needs of others. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.”

God Works (Part Two)

“For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things [healed a man] on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’” (John 5:16, 17)

These two thoughts—that we are to mimic God in His work, and that we ought to work out of gratitude and a sense of “obligation” to God—should be guiding factors in every one of our lives. If held as foundational principles in our lives, they will guide us to the best of lives and to greater success in every area of our lives. In fact, these two thoughts are one way of looking at the big picture of the “meaning of life.”

For example, when we consider that God is an active worker and never passive, never lazy, never procrastinating, never idle, we of a sudden reveal the heinous nature of these sins that we all too often excuse, downplay, and even joke about.

When I say God is never passive, I do not mean that He does not receive—of course He does—and of course we need to learn how to receive well to. But God is not passive in the sense of being “backward” or hesitant or letting others do what is His responsibility.

And when I say God is not idle, I do not mean that God does not “rest,” because we all know that He does, in some sense. (Genesis 2:2, 3) But the sense in which He does is important. Christ “works” a work of creation and redemption and healing on the Sabbath. Even when God rests, He is active, and when He calls His people to rest, He is not calling them to inactivity as much as He is calling them to glory, celebration, worship, joy, and “acts” of goodness and love—giving “rest” to others.

But, as I said, we all too often excuse laziness and procrastination, when in reality these sins represent neglect of the work God has called us to, what we might call “sins of omission,” and these sorts of sins are as serious as other more apparent sins.

Proverbs 18:9 puts it this way: “He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.” Whether you destroy your world by outright and overt destruction or through mere failure to do the work God has called you to, you are still destroying the world. Edmund Burke’s famous quote rings true: “All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” I would suggest, however, that such “good” men are not really good after all. They may be good in many things, but in the very thing that is most needed, they come up short.

“God, again we give thanks that You are never idle, never backward about the things You need to do, never destructive through sloth or neglect. Forgive us, dear God, for we often are. Teach us to be like You, dear God. Make us like You. Make us active and not passive, diligent servants, never slothful or unfaithful. Teach us to rest in our obedience to You and never to rest from our obedience to You. We give thanks for the diligence and perseverance and faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ who ever works to bring us life and joy, and we pray in His name. Amen.”

God Works (Part One)

“For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things [healed a man] on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’” (John 5:16, 17)

God works. He worked hard at the beginning of time, creating the world; He has worked just as hard throughout history, governing and guiding that same world; and He is still working today. He guides and controls everything, which, admittedly, is a big job, and it is a job for which He ought to receive a great amount of praise and glory. An even greater work performed by God, however, an even “harder” work, is the work of redemption, and it is for this work that God will be praised by His holy ones forever and ever and ever, world without end. Amen.

To draw things closer to home, however, the Bible says God is not just doing big-picture work like these things: He is also working on you—you personally. He created you, the way you are, with your own place in His world, your own history, your own personality, your own set of fingerprints that are unlike anyone else’s in the universe. He has governed over you, guided you, fed you, kept the air pumping in and out of you, protected you, healed you, educated you, and blessed you in a thousand other ways, every day of your life to this very moment. Exceeding all of that, however, is His work of your own personal salvation, which includes filling you personally with His own Holy Spirit.

We could go into more particulars—like the work He has accomplished for us through His holy prophets, the apostles, the work of Christ on the cross, the work of the Holy Spirit in converting the nations, and so forth. But I think this illustrates that God is a busy God—always working, always laboring, on behalf of the world, and on your own personal behalf as well.

If all of this is true, and it is, then there are two things that pop to the surface very quickly:

First, if we as Christians are to take God for our example, and we are—that is what it means to be godly, to be “like God”—then we cannot help but be workers, and hard workers. God is a creator, a maintainer, a feeder, a minister, a helper, a protector, a healer, a thinker, a communicator, an educator, a gardener, a beautifier, etc.; and God intends that each one of us be and do the very same: we are to enter into God’s work and mimic Him in the performing of it.

But the second thing that presents itself to us is the overwhelming sense of obligation and gratitude we at least should feel (even if we don’t). In other words, if the God of the universe has stooped to do so much for us, so much work and labor—if God has “taken pains,” so to speak—on our behalf, has done so much from which we both corporately and personally have benefited, we ought to feel as if we could never do enough ourselves to show Him our gratitude and to attempt at least to “pay Him back.” I know we can’t really, but, in a manner of speaking, we ought to feel how much we “owe” God and desire to give back to Him in appreciation.

“Great Father, we give You thanks this day for all the work You have done throughout all time—creating, sustaining, redeeming, rebuilding—and we give You thanks for the work You have done and continually do in our own personal lives as well. Make us like You, dear God, and like our Lord Jesus Christ—hard workers, working to bring You glory, working to fulfill Your will, working to serve others; teach us to be ever grateful for the work You have done on our behalf; and teach us to enjoy the work You have done and the work You have given us, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Holding the City Walls

“Whoever has no rule over his own spirit
Is like a city broken down, without walls.” (Proverbs 25:28)

We treat many of our sins in a passive sort of way, as things that simply “come over us,” as if there were nothing we could do about them. We “can’t help ourselves,” we say, whether it is a rush of anger, a “mood” of despondency or depression, falling into a passion of lust, or the avoidance of some duty through fear, indecision, or just plain laziness.

But the Bible knows better. We are to rule over our own spirits. We are little cities in microcosm, and our sins are our enemies. When we let our guard down, and especially when we do this on a habitual basis, the walls are breached, and our cities are occupied by our enemies, who continue to carry out their designs and govern our cities for us.

But we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, in our little cities. (Romans 6:12) By God’s grace, we do have the ability to hold the walls: to control our temper, to walk away from temptation, to keep our tongues from evil, to face our fears, to rejoice always even when other “spirits” within us fight against us to the contrary.

God’s grace is the key, of course, and we begin to pray for the grace to obey by praying for God’s grace in mercy, forgiveness, and repentance. Confess your sins now before the Lord, asking Him to deliver you from them, as well as asking Him to fill you with a spirit of obedience and self-control.

“Lord God, we confess our utter inability in and of ourselves to keep ourselves from sin, and we confess our lack of diligence in holding the walls of our spirit by resisting the enemies of sin, temptation, and the devil. Forgive us, dear God, for our “letting our guard down” and for our allowing sin to get the upper hand, and grant us the grace to rule over our spirits consistently and persistently. We give You thanks for Your own Holy Spirit, who resides within us, and pray You would fill us with Him and the holy fruit of self-control He produces. Help us to set a guard over our tongues, to control our temper, and to do Your will and obey Your voice regardless our feelings or “spirit” to the contrary. Grant to us, dear Lord, merciful Father, true and lasting repentance, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Invitation Declined

“My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent.”
(Proverbs 1:10)

Sin is enticing. If it were not, no one would do it. Sin has enough real good in it to make it appealing, but, because it is a perverted good, it always “takes away the life of its owners.” (1:19)

For example, food is good. Eating is good; regular, peaceful meals with family and friends are good. Good food tastes good. What is more delightful than a big, juicy hamburger, properly seasoned, fresh from the grill, loaded with tomato, onion, lettuce, ketchup, and mayonnaise? Give God thanks for it, and chow down with joy.

Gluttony, however, is condemned in no uncertain terms by God in His Word. Gluttony takes the good of eating and perverts it. To eat and enjoy is a good God has given us, and in fact not to do so is sin itself. But to eat and enjoy greedily and selfishly and to extremes is sinful.

Sinners are enticing as well. Just like misery, sin loves company. Because we are by nature sinners, it feels “at home” or natural for us to go along with the crowd as they sin merrily away. Christ, however, has put a new nature within us, and the old nature and the enticing sinners who promote it have to be resisted. Do not consent to go along. The path of the sinner always leads to a dead end. Sin never pays because it can’t—in the end it destroys the good it perverts and all other good as well.

When sinners entice, and they will, do not consent. Rather, look by faith to the greater and surer and everlasting good God delivers to those who through patient obedience and steadfast virtue walk with Him instead. God is the real thing, and the way He has made the world to operate according to righteousness and holiness is the only real path to joy and happiness and everything good. If someone promises to bring you there by any other way, they are lying through their teeth. Don’t go with them!

“Great God in heaven above, we give You thanks for all things good, and we pray You would build up in us by faith an ever greater love and gratitude for these wonderful gifts from Your hand. Grant to us wisdom and discernment, dear God, keep us from sin, and strengthen us in our resolve to turn away from it. When sinners entice us, O Lord, grant us the grace not to consent to them, but rather may we always be attracted instead by the beauty of Your holiness. Make us holy like You are holy, we pray, dear God—make us like our Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.”